WCP6094

Letter (WCP6094.7046)

[1]1

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY,

UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, OXFORD.

21st October 1949

W. G. Wallace, Esq[uire].,

61, East Avenue,

Bournemouth,

Hants2.

Dear Mr. Wallace,

I am sorry not to have answered your letter of October 6th before. I have been hoping to be able to discuss the matter with Mr. Tucker3 who is in charge of the bird collections of our museum, but unfortunately he is still away ill and I have not been able to do so, but in the meantime perhaps you could let me know how much you are asking for these skins of Birds of Paradise4,5.

I doubt rather whether we shall want them, and I would suggest that the British Museum6 is perhaps the better place. They will certainly be of special historic interest being those collected by your illustrious father, but I should be glad if you could let me know what you want for them in case Mr. Tucker should wish to purchase them for our museum.

Yours truly, | A. C. Hardy [signature]

Nov[ember]. 14. explained had been unable to ascertain value & asked for dealer’s price list[.] B[ritish]. M[useum]. no good7.

1

The page is numbered [WP16/4/3] in pencil in the top RH corner. The letter is typewritten on headed notepaper. "Linacre Professor: ALISTER C. HARDY, F. R. S." is printed in the top LH corner of the page. The letter is signed in ink.

2.

2
Hampshire.
3
Tucker, Bernard William (1901-1950) British ornithologist, lecturer in Ornithology at the University of Oxford.
4
During his expedition to the Malay Archipelago 1854-1862, ARW observed five different species of birds of paradise (family Paradisaeidae), which are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and eastern Australia. The recipient’s other attempts to sell the skins are documented elsewhere (see WCP6092, 6093, 6096 and 6097).
5
The initial letters of Birds and Paradise have been capitalised as corrections, in ink.
6

Museum dedicated to human history, art and culture established in Bloomsbury, London in 1753. The first branch institution, the British Museum (Natural History) opened in South Kensington in 1881.

8.

7
Annotation in ink in hand of recipient across the bottom RH corner of the page.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6094.7046)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP6094,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6094